The Davy Fitz era in Wexford really achieved lift-off during last year’s Allianz Hurling League Division 1 semi-final defeat to Tipperary.
The charismatic Clare man took over the Yellow Bellies before the start of the season just a fortnight after he departed his native Banner County.
Wexford is a hurling mad county and their supporters immediately got on this bandwagon, turning out in big numbers to back their new man Fitzgerald.
Results and performances followed, with promotion from Division 1B and a breakthrough win over Kilkenny at the quarter-final stage - their first competitive victory over the Cats since 2004 and their first against their neighbours at Nowlan Park since the fifties.
But it wasn’t until last April, again at Nowlan Park, that the touch paper was really lit.
Tipp, then favourites to retain their All-Ireland title, cantered to an eleven-point win in the end, though for a long time it was anything but comfortable and it wasn’t until the closing straight that they pulled away from flagging opponents.
After they scored their second goal Fitzgerald took matters into his own hands. He was clearly irate that corner-back James Breen wasn’t awarded a free in the build-up to the green flag going up.
But, the wily campaigner that he is, he was also aware that Tipp were getting a run on his team so he had to do something to slow them down while at the same time rising his players back up.
So on he stormed to the pitch, confronted referee Diarmuid Kirward and then got stuck into a jostling match with Premier County forward Jason Forde, a man half his age and twice his size.
As a result he picked up a touchline ban, Forde got two games, which was eventually halved and over which Fitzgerald admitted his regret, and he’d turned himself into a martyr, watching Leinster Championship games from behind darkened glass in especially constructed booths in the stands.
Fitzgerald brings an oddly calculated brand of chaos with him wherever he goes and it was against Tipp last year that he really unleashed it in Wexford, with a mini-pitch invasion followed by banishment from the dugout. Pure Davy Fitz.
What followed were a Leinster final appearance, an All-Ireland quarter-final and renewed hope for 2018. That hope certainly looks to have been well-founded - victory in the pre-season Walsh Cup followed in January and they have won their two League games since.
Wexford are top of the Division 1A table, ahead of Clare on scoring difference, with a 100 per cent record. Tipperary are one-for-two, having lost to Clare and beaten Waterford.
The two counties meet again on Saturday night at Semple Stadium, throw-in 7.00pm, for the first time since Davy Fitz’s fireworks ten months ago.
Since then Tipperary surrendered their All-Ireland crown, passing it on to Galway, and have been feeling their way into the new season.
‘It was definitely a Wexford free’- @MrJackieTee on Tipperary’s controversial second goal in Nowlan Park pic.twitter.com/XAlXs68L6e
— RTÉ Sport (@RTEsport) April 16, 2017
Wexford have, no doubt, started better, possibly because Fitzgerald is aiming to peak earlier in the season knowing that reaching another Leinster final - and aiming to win it - is a more realistic ambition than winning the Liam MacCarthy Cup in August.
Another win and other results go their way could see Fitzgerald’s team into the League quarter-finals again.
Watch highlights and analysis of all of this weekend’s big Allianz League games on Allianz League Sunday on RTÉ2 Television on Sunday from 9.30pm
